


Winter Wonders

by Verity_Belysandre



Category: Changeling (Visual Novel)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-10
Updated: 2019-03-10
Packaged: 2019-11-14 20:17:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18059351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Verity_Belysandre/pseuds/Verity_Belysandre
Summary: It's the first snow day since Bea's family moved in. Of course, it doesn't turn out quite like Corvin thought. Not that he's complaining.





	1. Child's Play

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a little fluff involving Corvin, my OC, and her family. In this fic you'll mostly see her 3 year old nephew, Braden.

Bea’s practically out the door before she realizes that there’s no school because of all the snow and that’s only because Elle put a post-it on the door leading to the garage. Her sister must have went back to bed since she wouldn’t be working today. In Bea’s defense, where they lived before never got any snow, so it’s not like it occurred to her to check first. She walks over to the living room and looks out the window.

Nothing outside has avoided a heavy dusting of snow. A good few inches blankets everything. It’s beautiful to look at anyway; Bea has no interest in going outside into the cold without good reason.

She can’t remember the last time she saw that much snow. Maybe when she was really young, but the memory is so fuzzy that this may as well be the first time. One thing is for sure: Braden’s going to be absolutely thrilled when he gets up. Something tells her he won’t be the only one.

With a soft sigh, Bea returns to the kitchen. No point in her going back to bed, especially since she’s already all dressed. It’ll be a few more hours before Braden and Elle get up, so breakfast can wait until later. No, she’ll just make some tea and read a book on the sofa.

She intends to enjoy the few hours of quiet before everyone else wakes up.

As she suspected, two hours later Braden is excitedly bouncing up and down in place as he takes in all the snow outside.

“Can we go outside? Can we?” Braden looks at her, his eyes pleading. His mother is still asleep, enjoying her day off. Of course; why should she be the one dragged outside in the snow when her adorable son can convince his aunt to do it instead? Not that Bea begrudges her a day off now and then. She just really doesn’t want to go outside. Not that she’s against the outdoors or anything, but she really doesn’t like being cold.

Bea stands up from her comfortable, not to mention warm, seat on the sofa. “In a little bit. Breakfast first, then we can go outside.”

Braden pouts at her. “But I wanna go out now…”

Bea gives him a stern look. Those puppy eyes won’t work on her this time. She knows that once he gets outside, it’ll take forever to get him back in. “Not until after breakfast. Then we can go outside.”

Her nephew huffs as he turns away from the window. “Fine.”

She softly laughs as he sulks into the kitchen. It’s going to be a long day. She follows him into the kitchen, already thinking about what sounds good for breakfast. Muffins sound good, but it’ll take some time before they’re ready. The wait will most likely test Braden’s patience, but that’s not a bad thing necessarily. Yes, muffins sound good.

Decision made, Bea softly hums to herself as she gathers the ingredients. Braden sits at the bar, coloring in a coloring book while he waits. His little legs kick back and forth, the only sign of his impatience. He knows better than to argue with his Aunt Bea. If he makes too much of a fuss, she’ll refuse to go outside.

So he does his best to engross himself in coloring the pages before him. He’s so successful in his endeavor that he jumps when the doorbell rings. When he looks up at his aunt, she’s nursing a cup of tea while she flips through a magazine. Behind her on the counter are the muffins. Braden wiggles in anticipation; he really wants to play outside. She looks up at him with an amused smile.

“I have a feeling I know who that is. Braden, could you get the door?” Bea looks over at him with a smile. Braden grins back at her before he slips off the stool and runs out of the kitchen towards the front door. He wonders who it is.

When Braden opens the door, he finds his aunt’s boyfriend on the other side. Braden thinks he’s weird, but he must be okay if his aunt likes him. He steps out of the way to let Corvin in before he dutifully shuts the door. “Hi!”

“Hey! Is Bea up?” Corvin grins down at him.

Braden nods at him, wrinkling his nose. “She’s making me eat breakfast before we can go outside.”

“She’s always so mean!” Corvin replies, commiserating with the three year old in front of him.

“I can hear you, you know! Besides, the muffins are ready.” Bea’s voice rings out from the kitchen, but all Corvin does is laugh. Braden turns away from him and eagerly trots back into the kitchen.

As Corvin moves to follow the eager little boy, he catches glimpse of their pet cat staring out of the living room. Though he’s not really sure pet is the correct term for the relationship the long-haired white cat has with the family. Fiona’s blue eyes bore into him and once she’s sure she has his attention, she deliberately turns to grooming herself. Yeah, well, he’s no fan of hers either. He turns away from the cat and walks into the kitchen.

The kitchen smells wonderful and it’s rather warm from the use of the oven. Bea softly smiles at him from behind the counter before moving towards the fridge. Braden is already eating one; surprisingly he’s not just shoveling it into his mouth as quick as he can. Sometimes when he’s too eager he eats too fast. When Bea turns back from the fridge with Braden’s apple juice, she frowns.

“Braden,” She admonishes. “What have I told you about eating so fast?”

Her nephew points behind her, talking while he chews. “But he’s doing it!”

“Don’t talk with your mouth full!”

Bea looks behind her to find Corvin shoving the last piece of a muffin into his mouth. When he catches sight of her glaring up at him, hands on her hips, he sheepishly smiles at her. There are crumbs all over the front of his shirt and in his scarf.

“Really? This isn’t The Murder; you don’t have to be worried that I’ll smack you with a wooden spoon for sneaking food.” Bea rolls her eyes as she turns back to Braden. The only evidence left of the muffin is the crumbs around his mouth and scattered on the counter in front of him. She should’ve known better than to take her eyes off him for two seconds.

With a disgruntled huff, Bea lightly smacks her boyfriend’s arm.

“Hey! You said you wouldn’t do that!” He pouts at her.

“Technically I said I wouldn’t smack you with a wooden spoon for stealing food. And I didn’t. I smacked you with my hand for two reasons. One: encouraging bad habits in my nephew. Two: for distracting me like that.”

Bea starts to step away from her boyfriend, but he snakes an arm around her. She softly grouses, but offers no resistance as he pulls her against him. Corvin nuzzles his face into the top of her head, relishing the contact. His girlfriend only lets him do this when she’s around her family or in the club; she rarely lets him do stuff like this when he’s around his group of followers. Though he is able to get away with doing so a little more than he used to.

When Corvin looks up, he catches sight of Braden’s wrinkled nose. Her three year old nephew doesn’t like to witness their displays of affection. That gives Corvin an idea. As a slightly evil smile forms on Corvin’s face, Bea tenses up.

“Cor…” she softly murmurs, “what are you thinking?”

 In response, he places a kiss on her head with a loud smack. He grins when he’s rewarded with the reaction he was hoping for. Was it petty and immature? Yep. But very few people would accuse Corvin of being mature to begin with.

“Yuck!” Braden slides off his stool with a disgusted noise. He shoots them an offended look before he leaves the kitchen.

Bea laughs as she looks up at him, her eyes sparkling. “Was that really necessary?”

Corvin kisses her instead of answering, taking advantage while he can. It doesn’t last long.

“When are we going outside?” Braden’s voice yells from the other room, his tone slightly whiny.

Bea pulls away from him with an apologetic smile. “I’m on babysitting duty today. If I had to guess, Elle’s hoping I tire him out enough so that she doesn’t have to go outside.”

As he reluctantly let’s her slip out of his arms, his gaze snags on the counter with the muffins. Out of the six that he saw, only two are gone. He shakes his head; she’s really bad about making sure **she** eats. She does this often enough that even he’s aware of it. “Bea, did you eat breakfast already?”

“Huh? Um…no.” Bea shrugs at him. “I can eat later.”

“You’re so pushy about making sure others eat, but you’re the worst about it. You should take care of yourself too.” Corvin frowns worriedly at her.

“If I make Braden wait any longer, he’s going to have a fit. If he does that, he’ll miss out on his first snow day. I can feel him anxiously waiting and he still needs to bundle up before he can go out. I’ll eat later.” His girlfriend matches his frown, not willing to give in.

“I’m sure I can manage. You can eat and supervise at the same time.” Corvin picks up a muffin and offers it to her. Bea sighs; when Corvin wants to, he can be really stubborn. They’ve been through this enough times that she doesn’t waste much time fussing with him.

Besides, previous experience has taught her that he has no problem trying to feed her by hand if necessary and she really doesn’t want him to do that. Her cheeks heat up at the memory. As her cheeks turn red, Corvin raises an eyebrow. Best to head off that thought before he catches on.

“Fine!” Bea grabs the muffin from him and takes a bite. “Happy now?”

“Ah ah! Don’t just shovel it into your mouth like that!” Corvin laughs as her hand smacks his shoulder, though she’s not truly irritated at him. He darts away from her towards the hallway. Only he runs face first into the archway instead of through the entry, too busy giving her a goofy smile to pay attention.

Bea laughs. “You deserved that, you brat!”

“So mean!” He pouts at her before he goes into the hallway. Bea slowly trails behind him, taking smaller bites out of her muffin. Braden is waiting in the hallway, thoroughly unamused at their antics. 

“Can we go outside now?” He whines. “Be weird later.”

“We’ll go outside as soon as you put on your coat and stuff.” Bea answers with an amused smile.

At her words, Braden opens the closet door. Unfortunately he’s too small to actually reach his coat and the box with his gloves and scarf. Corvin reaches over him and pulls the little boy’s coat off the hanger. He hands it over to Braden before snagging the box on the top shelf that holds the other outdoor paraphernalia. This isn’t the first time he’s been over while Bea is watching her nephew.

Bea finishes her muffin and she returns to the kitchen to throw away the wrapper. Despite all appearances, she trusts Corvin to keep an eye on her nephew. Even if he is the biggest doofus she’s ever met. When she comes back, Corvin is kneeling in front of Braden, adjusting the little boy’s scarf. She doesn’t need her empathic abilities to know that they’re up to something; the sneaky looks they give her tell her enough.

Even so, Bea acts as if she doesn’t notice as she starts to pull on her outdoor apparel. When she’s ready, all three of them head outside to the front yard.

For all his enthusiasm, Braden doesn’t have an easy time walking through the snow. Bea’s so busy keeping an eye on him, she doesn’t realize when Corvin sneaks off.

A short while later, a snowball hitting her in the shoulder makes her whip around. Braden giggles, clapping his hands. Corvin stands there with a cheeky grin, not even trying to feign innocence.

Bea tries to glare at him, lips twitching in amusement. Her attention is immediately drawn elsewhere when her nephew takes a handful of snow and throws it at her.

“What! You too?” Bea grabs for her giggling nephew, but Braden manages to dash away.

For the next fifteen minutes, snow is flying everywhere. Braden is indiscriminate in who he throws handfuls of snow at, not really trying to form it into a ball first. Bea spends most of her time trying to avoid the snow being flung at her, though she does manage to hit Corvin in the face with a snowball.

Bea sneaks up behind Corvin, a handful of snow in her hand. Her intention is to shove it under his coat, but he turns around at the last minute. He stumbles backwards, pulling Bea down with him.

She squeals in surprise as they fall into the cold snow. There’s enough padding between them to keep her from head-butting his chin. Her boyfriend laughs and pulls her up so she’s face to face with him. Nearby, her nephew is making raspberry noises at them.

“You did that on purpose didn’t you?” Bea looks down at him, her voice soft.

“Prove it!” Her boyfriend challenges her with a laugh. She shakes her head with a soft laugh. When she moves to get up, Corvin resists the urge to pull her back down to him.

Between his followers at school and Bea’s nephew usually being home when she is, he doesn’t get much time to himself with her. When they’re with her family, mainly Braden, he has to watch his behavior somewhat; after all, Braden is just a little boy and he won’t be responsible for corrupting a child. Well, at least not in **that** way. Commiserating with Braden about how mean his aunt was and making Bea exasperated at his childish behavior was a different story.

Still, he had hoped that he would be able to monopolize her attention today. After all, his followers at school usually don’t seek him out on days like this and with the weather, Elle was probably off too. He shouldn’t have been surprised though; on a day like today, Braden wouldn’t be going to daycare and the little boy could be a handful sometimes.

A flick on his nose gets his attention. “Earth to Cor. Do you plan on lying there all day?”

When Bea has his attention, she gracefully stands back up. She offers him a hand up. Once he’s standing again, she pulls him down by his scarf to give him a soft, quick peck on the lips. Before she pulls away, she whispers just loud enough for him to hear.

“Sorry. I know this wasn’t really what you were hoping for.”

“So, who wants to make a snowman?” Corvin turns towards Braden, an easy smile plastered on his face. He sometimes forgets that Bea is really good at reading people, even him. The last thing he wants to do is make her feel bad. He knows how loyal she is to those she cares about and it’s something he loves about her. He really does like her family anyway, with the exception of that annoying cat.  Besides, if he knows her, she’ll try to make it up to him later.

At those words, Braden perks up. He bounces up and down excitedly. “I do! I do!”

Bea smiles gratefully at him. “Well then, why don’t we get started?”

It doesn’t take long before Corvin is absorbed in explaining the finer points of snowman making to her three year old nephew. Leave it to her boyfriend to treat the creation of a snowman as a serious process. She just watches for a few minutes with a soft smile on her face.

Not for long though. When Corvin looks up at her, he grins.

“Admiring the view?”

A snowball smacking into his face is his answer. Another snowball fight ensues. Sadly the snowman doesn’t survive.


	2. A Little Bit of Freedom

A few snowmen, snow angels, and snowball fights later, the trio is joined by a fourth member.

“Mommy! Look what we did!” Braden grabs his mother’s hand, attempting to pull her towards the snowmen. He’s clearly bursting with anticipation. There’s a good chance he’s going to relay all he’s learned from Corvin to his mother at some point. It’s a terrifying thought, even if it’s only about snowmen, snow angels, and snowball fights.

“I can take it from here, you two.” Elle widely grins at them. Just before she turns around to follow her son, she winks. “I’m sure you two have better things to do.”

“Elle!” Bea groans, blushing.

Corvin shamelessly laughs as he grabs his girlfriend’s hand. He’s not going to let this opportunity go to waste. Within minutes the couple is heading down the path that will lead to The Murder. Bea’s trying to convince Corvin that she doesn’t need to share his scarf.

“Come on! We’re a couple aren’t we? This is what couples do!” Corvin attempts to stretch his scarf towards her, but she slips out of his grasp. When he makes a grab for her, she dances to the side. Of course, he falls. Again. Well, at least the snow cushions his fall a little.

Corvin simply rolls over onto his back. Bea crouches down next to him, her eyes glittering in amusement.

“One: I have a scarf already. Two: You’re several inches taller than me. Even if it would stretch that far, I would not be comfortable. You don’t really want to strangle me, do you?” Bea shakes her head at him, only to squeak in surprise when he firmly shoves her backwards.

“Ha!” Within seconds Corvin is looming over her, pinning her between his hand and knees.  He’s grinning triumphantly at her, clearly pleased with himself.

“You—I—why?” Bea stutters, her face turning a bright red.

At her reaction, Corvin grins even wider. By now she should now that he likes to fluster her and it’s easiest when it’s just the two of them. In a way, he’s simply picking up where they left off earlier. And this time there’s no nephew or anyone else to worry about. And that’s really the only thing that was making him behave himself. Still, he’s not entirely sure if he’s pushing too hard, so he doesn’t give into the impulse to immediately kiss her. Even if he really wants to.

When Corvin doesn’t immediately respond, Bea speaks again. This time she manages to be coherent, even if her face is still bright red. “You’re far too satisfied with yourself right now. Seriously Corvin, anyone could find us like this.”

Her boyfriend takes that as a go ahead, clearly intending to kiss her. Contrary to her protests, she’s really not opposed to his antics right now. Even so, she intends to repay him for pushing her over.

Bea shoves a handful of snow into Corvin’s face with one hand while she uses the other to shove him off. He’s so surprised, she manages to easily shove him off. With a bright laugh, she quickly stands up. As Corvin’s getting back up, she takes several steps back.

“Bea! That wasn’t fair!” Corvin dons his very best sulky expression.

Bea only laughs. She knows very well that he’s not that upset about it and he knows it too.

“Yeah, well, you pushed me over. I’ll tell you what: Catch me fair and square this time. Let’s see what happens.” Bea laughs as she runs off, not bothering to look behind her. There was no way that Corvin would refuse that challenge. The real question is how long it’ll take him to catch her.

Sometime later Bea and Corvin walk into The Murder, slightly damp and disheveled. When Merle catches sight of them, he raises an eyebrow. Bea flushes slightly, a clear giveaway to what probably occurred. Not that he couldn’t tell from Cory’s pleased expression.

They move towards an empty table in the back, which isn’t unusual. Bea prefers to be seated away from the door.

What is unusual is Corvin pulling her into his lap and the fact she lets him.

When Merle returns from the kitchen with two cups of hot cocoa, Corvin is trying to figure out how to wrap part of his scarf around Bea’s neck. On the table there’s a discarded dark grey scarf, probably hers. Once she realizes Merle walking towards them, she simply shrugs with an amused smile.

“I’ve given up trying to convince him to stop.” Bea remarks when Merle reaches their table.

“It looks to me like you didn’t try hard enough.” Merle smirks at her. She simply raises an eyebrow in response, even as a faint blush forms on her face.

“See! It works!” Corvin exclaims after he’s awkwardly wrapped one end of his scarf around her neck. It’s barely wrapped around her neck, the end barely hanging over her shoulder. She starts to shake her head, but thinks better of it. Instead a look of long suffering forms on her face.

“What are the odds he spills hot cocoa on me?” An exasperated sigh punctuates Bea’s question.

“I’d never!” Corvin huffs.

Merle examines them as he considers his answer. “I think you’re safe. Well, safe from the hot cocoa. I’m not so sure about the scarf.”

“Good to know.” Bea softly laughs, her face lighting up.

As Merle walks away, he marvels at how different she is from the girl he first met. He did not peg her as Cory’s type.

When Bea first arrived in Pine Hollow, she rarely spoke and kept to herself. Any attempt to get close to her was difficult since she somehow always knew when someone was looking for her. Merle still wasn’t sure how Corvin managed.    

When Merle checks back up on them, the youngest Beltran has fallen asleep. Bea is still seated on his lap, his arms loosely wrapped around her waist. Despite her earlier fussing, Corvin’s scarf is still wrapped around her neck. Her attention is on her phone, reading something.

“I’m surprised you haven’t moved yet.”

She looks up with a shrug. “Every time I try, his grip tightens. If I didn’t know better, I’d think he was doing it on purpose. Do you want me to wake him up?”

“Nah. Though I can’t help but wonder why he’s so tired.” Merle teases, curious how she’ll react.

“You try keeping up with a three year old who’s never seen snow before.” She dryly replies, purposely ignoring his insinuation. If he truly wants to know, he can try to wrangle the specifics from Corvin. She’s not near as shameless as her boyfriend. And besides, it’s not a lie; Braden was really excited about his first snow day.

As Merle was about to respond, someone walked in through the other door of the café. Bea’s already waving him off, her attention back on her phone. Even though she can’t see both sides of the café, she can sense the addition of another presence. Merle leaves Kaya to watch the café floor while he deals with the client.

Bea tucks her phone into her jacket pocket with a yawn. It’s time to wake Corvin up. At this rate it won’t be long before she falls asleep too. Braden was particularly energetic today and she managed to lead Corvin on a merry chase before he actually managed to catch her. As a result, she’s managed to tire herself out as well.

She carefully unwinds his scarf from around her neck.  The last thing she needs to do is accidentally strangle herself…or her silly boyfriend. Unfortunately any attempt to actually get off of Corvin’s lap fails, his arms tightening about her waist whenever she moves.

It takes a bit of doing, but eventually she manages to adjust her position so she’s sitting sideways on his lap. When she sees his sleeping face, an affectionate smile forms on her face. If they weren’t sitting in the middle of the café, she would simply give in and fall asleep too. She’s comfortable and being held by Corvin always makes her feel safe.

“Corvin, come on. Wake up.” She gently tugs on his hair, but isn’t really surprised when nothing happens. He’s really hard to wake up once he actually falls asleep. She makes a couple of more attempts, but really only manages to use up what little energy she has left. Eventually she ends up falling asleep, only vaguely aware when her efforts actually prove fruitful.

Corvin wakes up to Bea partially curled up against him, her breathing even and steady. He’s surprised she actually fell asleep. Well, he thinks she’s asleep.

“Bea?” He whispers, not really wanting to wake her up if she is.

She responds by snuggling into him with a soft, incomprehensible murmur. Definitely asleep. He nuzzles his face into the top of her head, gratified at how at ease she must have been to actually fall asleep. That’s she so comfortable with him is touching. Even though he knows how she feels, it still feels like something special when she lets her guard down like this.

She looks so peaceful that he’s reluctant to wake her up. It takes a pointed look from Merle to encourage him to do so. Bea doesn’t wake easily and she’s groggily clinging to him as they make their way to his apartment. He’s not the least bit surprised when she pulls him towards his bed and tugs him down into the bed with her. Within minutes she’s once again asleep, curled up with her back to him.

Oh, he’s going to have so much fun teasing her about this later. For now though, sleep sounds good.


End file.
